A Biblical Vision, Part II: Mastering the New Testament Witness to Christ

Ses s i on 6: The Ep i s t l es : The I nterpretat i on and App l i cat i on of Chr i s t 177

2. A polemical letter (argumentative) – Paul is hot and indignant at those who would reduce faith in Christ to moralism or legalism.

3. The primacy and clarity of freedom in Christ is a critical theme.

a. Gal. 2.4 – Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in – who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery.

b. Gal. 3.25 – But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

c. Gal. 4.26 – But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.

d. Gal. 4.31 – So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

e. Gal. 5.1 – For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

4. Christ has set us free from the tyranny of the Law

a. Jesus has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, Gal. 3.13 – Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.”

b. If righteousness comes through the Law, Christ died for nothing at all, Gal. 2.20-21 – It is no longer I who